Who wants to be a Taoist sage? I do . . . don’t. Ali Cavanaugh’s brilliant watercolor of Taylor Swift. Click through for my podcast with Ali. While Taylor Swift was being born in 1989 I was discovering the Taoist approach to life. She has since made an...

I’m 5 years old and uncle Tommy is coming over to show his cine films. This is 1968 and it’s a big deal. If you’ve seen Mad Men you’ll get the picture. Cine films were an event because they were in colour. Our tv was black and white. Cine films...

I’m sitting with my eyes closed in a school hall in Dublin. Forty people I met only yesterday surround me. John Denver strums over the sound system and we’re encouraged to sing along. This is the 80’s. This is personal development. “Sweet, sweet surrender. Live, live...

All You Need Is A Satellite To See It. I was noodling about on google maps a couple of weeks ago looking for the regional office of a car hire firm in Australia. What? You don’t look for car hire firms in random locations? My wife runs a migration business and she...

I’m looking at a youtube video and getting a bit teary. It’s not about a cute puppy or a blind beggar who plays the violin. It’s about a battery. A big white battery you put on the wall of your garage. The inventor says it’s like a...

This is a transcript from my interview with artist Ashley Longshore. You can listen to the interview here. I’m very happy to be talking to Ashley longshore today. Normally I introduce the people I’m chatting with but today I’m going to let one...